The Lamentations of the Two Jin Emperors: The Brothers of the Bitter Fate: Emperor An and Emperor Gong (Part 2)

2. The open-minded and wise Sima Dewen

Since the death of the emperor's brother is related to the proverb, the fact that the younger brother can ascend to the emperor's throne is naturally related to the proverb. What is "interesting" is that it is not that the proverb has to be fulfilled, but that someone has artificially made it come true through effort. After the death of Emperor Sima Dezong of An, in the "testament" drafted by Liu Yudai, in addition to a grandiose empty rhetoric, he said that he was "and the illness will gradually become more and more serious, and he will be prosperous", which is nothing more than to express such a meaning: Listen to all of you, my emperor is sick and dying, and no one should associate my death with "killing the king" and "plotting rebellion". Then he said that you Sima Dewen, the evil king of Lang, were both the son of the former emperor, and that you were also "Mingde Guangmao" and "the most popular gathering", and that if you did not inherit the throne, "King's Landing jinbang" ("JinShu Gong Emperor Ji"), respectfully maintain the ancestral ancestors of Emperor Gaozuxuan, who else can bear this heavy responsibility!

Sima Dewen (386 – November 2, 421)

Since Sima Dewen was very clever, how could he not know the mystery of this edict? How can you believe that your brother died of illness? But how about knowing? What about disbelief? Can he demand that the real killer be investigated and severely punished? What a joke! My foolish brother is a puppet, and now that I want to live, I have to be a puppet, and in this respect there is no difference between cleverness and stupidity, and setting up a puppet on the "sacred" golden hall is a political necessity, and both wise and foolish must obey this need. Of course, the form still has to be done, and the cutscene still has to be performed. Therefore, the amnesty was granted to the world that year, and at the beginning of the new spring, the era name was changed to "Yuan Xi", using the name of the new emperor Sima Dewen; and his wife, the former Princess Chu Lingyuan of Lang, was also promoted to Empress Chu. From the ascension of Dabao in December of the fourteenth year of Yixi to the ascension to the throne in June of the second year of Yuan Xi (420 AD), Sima Dewen served as emperor for 18 months, to be precise, as a puppet for 18 months - "rounding up", which can barely be seen as a two-year reign. When Liu Yu sent people with "secret wills" and "satirize the emperor's throne", Sima Dewen did not resist at all. The person who came said: The draft of the Edict of The Zen Position has been prepared, and Your Majesty will copy another copy and issue it in your name. Sima Dewen "gladly wrote" and open-mindedly said to his attendants: "When Huan Xuan rebelled, the Great Jin Dynasty had actually lost the world, but thanks to the support of Liu Gong, it lasted for nearly twenty years. Today's events, I am willing! Soon, word for word, he copied it onto the special red paper on which the Holy Will was written. Immediately after, the Zen ceremony and the new emperor's enthronement ceremony, everything was logical. Thus, from 265, when Sima Yan accepted the "Zen throne" of Liu Xie, the Emperor of Han Xian, to Sima Dewen's "Zen throne" to Liu Yu, the Emperor of Song Wu in 420, the two Jin dynasties existed for 155 years. From the time Sima Rui was proclaimed King of Jin in 317 AD and changed his era name, the Eastern Jin Dynasty existed for 103 years.

Although he was forced to be helpless, he was also open-minded and generous, because Sima Dewen knew deeply that the "Mandate of Heaven" had changed, and he had no power to return to heaven, so why not obediently obey it wisely rather than resist ineffectively? What else can be gained as a result of resistance other than to increase one's own humiliation in vain? Perhaps he really hoped that if he obediently handed over the throne, he might be able to get the preferential treatment or "leniency" of the new emperor?

So, let's look at the final outcome of the last emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

After the Zen throne, the new emperor Liu Yu made Sima Dewen the King of Lingling, and Empress Chu naturally became the Princess of Lingling. Liu Yu also built a palace for Sima Dewen in Moling County, 60 miles from Jiankang (present-day Nanmoling Town, Jiangling District, Nanjing), and sent troops to "protect" them. In addition to being humble and cautious, Sima Dewen also had another side in his personality, it is said that he was cruel and impatient when he was a child, and when he was in the country, he often ordered excellent archers to shoot horses to death, for pleasure. Later, someone reminded him: "Ma is the national surname, didn't you commit suicide?" So unlucky! Sima Dewen heard that it was reasonable and remorseful. Later, he became fascinated with Buddhism and spent tens of millions of dollars to cast a golden Buddha statue that was six feet tall, and Sima Dewen personally walked more than ten miles to welcome the Buddha statue to the Waguan Temple on the bank of the Phoenix Terrace in Jinling. Since his dethronement, Sima Dewen was deeply afraid of the disaster coming, and he was more cautious and careful, buying vegetables and rice was handled by Chu Lingyuan, eating and drinking water were all operated by Chu Lingyuan himself, and the couple lived in the same room, inseparable. Is he a little nervous? In fact, Liu Yu had always wanted to assassinate him, and once handed over to Sima Dewen's original subordinate, Lang Zhong, Lang Zhong, of the Lang Evil Kingdom, to poison a jar of wine and let him poison Sima Dewen. Knowing that Zhang Wei was halfway to the road, he sighed and said, "If you want me to poison the original monarch, it is better to die myself!" He drank all the poisoned wine and fell to his death on the side of the road. After that, due to Chu Lingyuan's meticulous protection, Liu Yu has not found a suitable opportunity to start. Chu Lingyuan's two older brothers, Chu Xiuzhi and Chu Tanzhi, both served in the Liu Song Dynasty, and Liu Yu gave the brothers a task: as long as any of Sima Dewen's wives and concubines gave birth to a boy, he would find a convenient opportunity to strangle him to death! In this way, although Sima Dewen's descendants were cut off, he himself was still there! In September of the second year of the Yongchu Dynasty (421 AD), Liu Yushi could not wait any longer, so he ordered the Chu brothers to visit his sister. Chu Lingyuan had to come out and receive her two brothers in another house. The soldiers who had already been ambushed took the opportunity to climb over the wall, soaked the poison in the wine, and forced Sima Dewen to take it. Sima Dewen said, "Buddhism stipulates that when a person who commits suicide is reincarnated, he cannot obtain a human body. "The soldiers covered his head with a quilt and smothered him to death.

This year, Sima Dewen was 36 years old. What is even more tragic is that the previous Zen emperors did not have a risk of their lives, such as Liu Bao, such as Liu Xie, such as Cao Wan, who were not killed by their Zen targets. Sima Dewen not only harmed himself, but even the next generation was not allowed to leave a man! Mr. Hu Sansheng, who wrote for the Zizhi Tongjian, said with emotion: "Since then, the king of Zen has rarely achieved everything!" ”

Emperor Liu Yu of the Song Dynasty, despite his great talent, was the first to set a bad example, which added a little blood to the already bloody history of the emperor. Not badly, he was more "respectful" of women, wanted to kill an emperor who had been deposed, and also considered avoiding women as much as possible, not letting Chu Lingyuan witness the murder of her husband; when he killed Sima Dewen's sons mercilessly, he left his daughter "magnanimously". According to the "Biography of the Later Concubines of the Book of Jin", Chu Lingyuan alone had two daughters, one was given the title of Princess Haiyan and the other was given the title of Princess of Fuyang. Chu Lingyuan herself was two years older than her husband, and lived peacefully to the thirteenth year of Emperor Yuanjia of Song (436 AD), and was 53 years old when she died. Princess Fuyang is missing, and Princess Haiyan is known in the Book of Song and the Biography of Empress Dowager, whose original name was Sima Maoying, and she married Liu Yu's eldest son Liu Yifu, who was also worshipped as empress after Liu Yifu ascended the throne. Unfortunately, the fate of the Eastern Jin Dynasty princess and empress dowager Liu Song was not very good: her husband died in a palace coup when she was 19 years old, and Sima Maoying, as his wife, was not only demoted to a concubine, but also a widow at a young age. However, it is not bad, the Book of Song, the History of the South and the Zizhi Tongjian all say that she died in the sixteenth year of Yuan Jia (439 AD) and died well. However, the Book of Song said that she lived to be 47 years old, which was obviously wrong: if her mother and husband were alive that year, one was 56 years old, the other was 34 years old— 13 years older than her husband, how could she be only 9 years younger than her mother?

Although he killed his relative Sima Dewen, in order to hide his eyes and ears, Liu Yu also personally led the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu to mourn for him for three days above the Golden Temple to show his "deep" mood.

Sadly, while the idiot emperor could not survive the treacherous political environment, the open-minded and wise emperor could not escape the same fate. No wonder Sima Dewen had to be cautious in protecting his stupid brother who was the emperor, and as wise as he was, he naturally knew that as long as his foolish brother emperor was still alive, his own life safety would be somewhat guaranteed; once the foolish brother was killed, wouldn't it be his turn next!

Cough, this bitter brother, this poor and deplorable brother.

(The Emperor and His Descendants series No. 135)